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Mr Houchen said: “This is a significant breakthrough in securing the ownership of the former SSI site. I welcome the agreement we have made to proceed with this deal.

“I am grateful to the Thai banks for their cooperation throughout this process. They recognise how important this site is to the people of the Tees Valley, and are keen to conclude negotiations very soon.

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“I am also grateful to the British Embassy in Bangkok and our own Government at home for pulling every lever possible to reach what we have agreed today.

“My focus is and always has been seeing jobs created on site as soon as possible. We’ve got the money to remediate, the powers to invest, and over 100 businesses lining up, but we just need the land to kick-start development.